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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Balls

posted by on May 16 at 9:47 AM

The morning perusal of Serious Eats brought this golden nugget of food news to my attention:

This past Saturday, over 300 people paid $5 for all-you-can-eat, deep-fried goat, lamb, and bull balls at the ninth annual Testicle Festival at Mama’s Place Bar and Grill in Elderon, Wisconsin. This “nut fry,” as founder Nancy Fenske refers to it, grew from humble beginnings as a birthday party for her husband twelve years ago to a full-on ball eating rager. Now, they’re frying around 100 pounds of the stuff each year.

I’ve not had the pleasure of eating balls, but I’d like to try them. I imagine, if cooked well, they’d be similar to brains and sweetbreads, which are best fried—crispy on the outside, deliciously melty, soft, subtle, and flavorful on the inside. Anyone know a place where a girl can get some good balls in this town?

Talk of the Testicle Festival reminded me of a great post last fall on Michael Ruhlman’s blog about one Vermont woman’s experience preparing testicles. She pan fried them with butter and lime. She also took pictures.

RSS icon Comments

1

MONTANA ROAD TRIP! Who's with me?

Posted by KELLY O | May 16, 2007 10:24 AM
2

in. whoa girl!

Posted by angela garbes | May 16, 2007 10:34 AM
3

This is an interesting addition to the suicide food genre: http://www.testyfesty.com/img/testyfestyCOW.gif

For the first time, it seems the food in question is not exactly happy about its situation.

Posted by Levislade | May 16, 2007 10:51 AM
4

Mmm, I saw Soup No. 5 when that Bizarre Foods guy's show was in the Philippines a couple weeks ago.

Posted by Pete | May 16, 2007 10:59 AM
5

garbes, you're always welcome to eat my balls!

Posted by nipper | May 16, 2007 11:26 AM
6

This reminds me of the Turkey Testicle Festival in Byron, IL, near my hometown. I just looked at the website and listened to the Turkey Testicle Festival Song. Amazing. I love the tagline at the bottom of the page, "Let's all get nuts!"

http://www.turkey-testicle-festival.com/

I never had the opportunity to go, but one year a buddy of mine got drunk and threw up his testicles.

Posted by debo | May 16, 2007 11:30 AM
7

Bacon, ham, steak; with so many parts of an animal to eat, why eat their nuts?

Posted by Mike in MO | May 16, 2007 11:54 AM
8

because they're fucking delicious!!!!! i've had lamb testes at Rover's and duck nuts at Crush. i love them; they have the same consistency as my other favorite organs: brains and thymus gland (sweetbreads).

Posted by dawn | May 16, 2007 1:04 PM
9

because they're fucking delicious!!!!! i've had lamb testes at Rover's and duck nuts at Crush. i love them; they have the same consistency as my other favorite organs: brains and thymus gland (sweetbreads).

Posted by dawn | May 16, 2007 1:04 PM
10

you gotta really soak em, a lot of blood comes out. best fried i think, but I bet a little ragu of them would be good with eggs (and you'd have a nice little reproductive thing going there with a dish like that.)

Posted by ruhlman | May 16, 2007 1:59 PM
11

I think a follow-up to Mike's question might be: who first came up with the idea of eating an animal's nuts?

Posted by keshmeshi | May 16, 2007 5:01 PM
12

Fuck throwing up in my own mouth; I'ma throw up in all y'all's mouths.

Posted by walt the glide frazier's haberdasher | May 16, 2007 7:58 PM
13

Fuck, I grew up in Wisconsin and I've never heard of Elderon. Must be in BFE. I'll give it a wide berth next time I go home.

Posted by JessB | May 16, 2007 10:10 PM
14

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Posted by ycibawn ugwt | May 18, 2007 7:39 PM

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